Preparing for a new start...

Its 2 weeks more at Seraya, sad to leave actually. I guess have to prioritise things that are more important to me ba.

Went for onboarding last Wed and Thurs, a crash course on tasks of a trading operator. Learnt terminology on freight, trading, legal and definitions used in the trade. Vastly different from engineering, but should not be difficult to pick up. Still have to learn about the software to use when i officially join in on the 16th of Jun. Very nice people there, my manager and colleagues are friendly and so is the environment there. =) So far, so good.

Gonna go work on Monday with my big bag, need to clear up the table to get it ready to handover to the new guy. Then got to onboard him to Shell and Seraya too! Will be looking for thank you cards for some colleagues liao, as seraya is a good place to work and for engineering knowledge. =)

Hmmm... wonder how work will be like, since i will be having a laptop and blackberry too. The question now is whether i want to keep my personal line or not. =P

A photo taken on 1st May 08, my mom's birthday. Yup. A rare glimpse of my parents on my blog as photo taking sessions are rare. =P We had dinner at Long Beach at East Coast (beside burger King). Portions had shrunk since the last i went there...i think. xP

Basketball and injured pinky

Went for basketball session this morning, is my first for 2008, and surprisingly, it may be almost a year since i last played. Very tiring and my shots are wide, positioning sucks and lay ups misses are the norm. Played 4 games, one of them full court and scored only twice, one long range and the other a lay up. =P

This is the bunch of people i play with, mainly my brother's TJC mates. Early in the morning at Bedok reservoir, not playing at CC as there are some events held there.



My injured pinky on my left hand, looks like guitar lesson on tues is out of the question. Cant even close my hand, nor move it much. The only way to know if it has recovered would be that i feel no pain when i dig my nose with it. =P Tried to do it in the washroom unconsciously, and the pain quickly reminded me that it was a bad option to use it while injured. xP

This week will be tiring as i will be trying to finish up as much as possible, though i can hand over to the new guy, but, somehow i just wanna hand over as swee swee as possible. With new things cropping up every now and then, it is a very tough challenge to do so. Furthermore, i also procrastinate a bit. heh.

Badminton tournament.

Finally, time to put some photos onto my blog. Pretty empty without photos. =P

Anyway, our team dropped out of the tournament after losing our very first match =P, consolation is that we lost to the eventual winning team. So.. not that bad ba. heh. Some photos taken on the day of the finals.


This is my team, Oni, Swee Seng, Tommy, Cindy and me!



No prizes for guessing who won the championship from this photo. =P

A bit sad to be leaving Seraya, only less than 14 working days to go. Completed a few items on my hands, such as modification (and hopefully considered to be an improvement) on the bad actors list and on LRPs and hopefully can complete P6238 before i leave. Actually quite a lot of stuff which can do, but will take months to start, prepare and implement.

But will have to move on to prepare for my new role already, and will be going to Suntec tomorrow evening to buy some long sleeve shirts cos i definitely cannot go to work in Shell House with only 2 sets of long sleeve shirts. =P

Gastric problems ...

Visited Dr Fong this morning as my gastric continued to give me problems for the past week. =/ Hopefully will recover soon, else going to be bloated and in discomfort for a long time.

Well, my date of transfer is fixed at 16 Jun, quite sad to leave Seraya, but at the same time relieved. So a bit tacky ba. As i learn more about rotating equipment and reliability issues, it is definitely very interesting and challenging but at the same time, realised that there is a lot more knowledge out there which I have yet to learn. Too bad have to stop at this point, but still, glad that i have done some improvements to Seraya before i am transferred out. =)

By chance, going with NTU anglers club to malaysia for fishing on 7 and 8th Jun, as i got into contact with Houyi during CCHS meet up. =) So i guess that will serve as a short break before i get busy learning new stuff as a trading operator.

Confirmation of a new beginning

Well. The GTKY session was .. hmmm. didnt really know how it really went. Seems like i was being tested, and looks like i passed. =P Went home after the session with the RTLs and was pondering about how i would have answered some of the questions if i had given it more thought. It was surprising for me to open my email outlook on Friday morning, to see that my future manager had already sent me an email with the great news that i am accepted and my next posting will be as a trading operator, dealing with crude oil.

I had chosen this path and had successfully crossed the bridge. Now is what lies ahead and ... its time to buy long sleeve shirts, pants and also some reading material on trading and more info on trading operators. Gonna to spend some money liao. =/

GTKY session

Hmmmm.. tomorrow's the GTKY session at Shell House. Its at 3pm, so logistics is going to be a nightmare. What logistics? u might ask. Well, i will have to head down to the sea water intake pump to have a visual inspection of the suction bowl, its impellers (it is 2 stage) and to determine if it requires to be brought to Sulzer for servicing.

That will definitely cause me to perspire a lot and ... that means i have to get changed and freshened up before I head to city for the interview. Else the RTLs will find me stinky, which is obviously not a good start. Halfway done with my K2301/K2302 and K3201 report, will have to complete P6238/P6237 as soon as possible too. Now have to juggle those 2 with coming up with the new bad actor excel format and hold a meeting next week. =P Busy busy busy, which is good as it is still in the eu-stress range. Have to also look at P6202 and possibly the status of P5502A's plan for modification in Germany. If P5502A gets the go ahead, it will be another thing to accomplish as much as possible before i leave Seraya. Well. That is if they find me okay during tomorrow's GTKY session.

Chung Cheng 4J class outing

Received the pictures from Lynn this morning, or rather, she sent them on Sun, but I opened them this morning. Will transfer over .. not today. heh. Tired after some badminton after work, and .. well, i guess i will need to sleep pretty soon.

Anyway, it was the first meet up after almost 12 years since we 'graduated' from secondary school. Only kept in touch with Chris, Zhihao and Yunning the most, and sometimes Jennifer, Jiajun, Louis, Miss See. Happy to see 17 ex-classmates after such a long time. I have not much story to tell as I was very quiet and geeky during my secondary school days, surprising, but true. =P

Everyday was to go school, then go home while listening to FM93.3. Then study a bit, continue to listen to FM93.3. Still rather surprised i can get rather good results for my GCE 'O' levels with.... minimal studying.

Good to see everyone healthy and happy. Glad that I had the chance to meet everyone again, and to re-establish our friendship after so long. Appreciate the efforts of Kangning. =D Also very happily surprised that Houyi and Xiaoping are getting married. haha. To think they got together 8 years after they left CCHS(M). My best wishes for them and looking forward to their wedding, but before that, hopefully a fishing trip with Houyi and friends are in the cards.

I am so glad that I'm still alive and kicking. Well... gonna go back to work and concentrate on clearing my stuff before i move out of Seraya, although it seems that more projects are on the way. xP Do hope that i can smoothly hand over to someone, or well.... not to leave too much backlog behind if there is nobody to hand over to. Else work will definitely accumulate over time.

Weekly update liao

Looks like its going to be a weekly update of my blog nowadays. =P Loads had happened this past week. An ex student of Wheng had been knocked down by a car, and was in a coma for 2 days before passing away on around midnight on Wed. We had visited her for 2 nights at the ICU in CGH, praying for her to pull through. Rather saddened by the news although I didn't know her.

Well, life goes on and yes, reminded me again on the importance of my family and friends, though i must say that i need no reminding. Celebrated mother's birthday on 1st May. Actually wanted to bring her for fishing competition, but no competition was held cos of the higher costs nowadays. Thus only went for dinner at Long Beach restaurant, where the portions seemed to have gotten smaller although the price remained the same. =P

Quite happening in the workplace. With the drive towards reliability, will be tweaking the bad actors list and some reports. Good news is that the people there are having more confidence in me as my recommendations (some with help of my senior colleagues + supervisor) are proven to be effective. Ideas are being accepted, aka less challenged, as I have a bit more experience from other similar pumps and thus can provide better justifications. Not so good news would be that I will probably be leaving Seraya by June, leaving after getting into the job and having to start all over again ... hmmmm... well. At least I am leaving Seraya wtih goodwill and had contributed to Seraya in my short stay of about 6 months now.

Wonder how the GTKY session will be on 8th May. If i get to choose between Dubai and Singapore posting, I will ask for Dubai. Since I am still 'young', think should seize the opportunity to head out and explore other countries. In theory, I would be able to put more efforts into self development over there as I will not have the chance to play mahjong, meet up with friends etc. Instead, starting would be able to concentrate on picking up whatever skills i need to do well in my new role and to make new friends and have some self development within the next 3 years. Furthermore, hopefully by the time i come back, I would have healthy savings and the property market is in the lull. =P

Changed my engine oil to full synthetic 5w-30, Pennzoil platinum, which is owned by Shell actually. Chose this over Shell Helix as Shell Helix only comes in 5w-40, which i will use only when my engine gets older. =P Hopefully my fuel efficiency will increase from the current average of 14.8km/l.